On this edition of After Dark: Spielberg's flop(?), GLP-1s are melting nightlife, Midjourney's health pivot, and why this is the Bad Place. this episode is exclusive to Future Commerce Plus members – sign up now at futurecommerce.com/plus.

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Phillip and Brian run the docket: why "proof of work" is the new luxury signal, what the AI export-control fight shares with a brand guarding its trade secrets, and how AI is flooding the patent office while quietly favoring incumbents.

But perhaps the most profound part of the conversation lies in two trends taking internet culture by storm. "Tasteslop" and Korea's "dopamine sites" appear as distinct ideas, but they’re actually two faces of the same impulse: consumption stripped down to pure signal.

Key takeaways:

• AI slop makes "proof of work" the new status signal.
• Brands win by showing the process and the discards, not hiding them.
• Software isn't the moat… chips, power, and craft are.
• AI patent tools favor incumbents, widening the gap with upstarts.
• "Tasteslop" and "dopamine sites": consumption as pure signal, minus the object.

Key quotes:

• [~06:45] "When people aren't making up the machine, we start to question everything now." — Brian
• [~10:00] "It's the entire PR campaign around it that shows you all of the discarded drawings that weren't used." — Phillip
• [~36:00] "AI does not make this more of a level playing field. If anything… they can box the small guys out even more effectively." — Phillip
• [~39:29] "You can't trademark taste." — Brian

• "The Process Is the Product" – Insiders piece by Sophia Epstein
• James Bridle – Ways of Being: Beyond Human Intelligence and New Dark Age
• AI & Agentic Commerce hub
• Emily Segal on "Tasteslop"
• STRATA: 10 Aesthetics Shaping Culture and Commerce

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Resale is forcing brands to rethink product design, pricing, and customer acquisition from the ground up.

Ryan Rowe (Archive) and Alison Buchanan (Lululemon) join Brian and Alicia to unpack how lululemon’s Like New evolved from a sustainability pilot into a meaningful commercial channel. We unpack messy reverse logistics, the AI agents now quietly running warehouse decisions, and the organizational vision required to make circular commerce work across a vertically structured enterprise.

• Resale has shifted from a sustainability gesture to a commercial channel with P&L accountability.
• Branded resale wins where third-party marketplaces can't: data integrity, trust, and brand language.
• Like New must operate to tackle a fundamentally different eCommerce problem — one-of-one inventory breaks mainline systems.
• AI is moving from assisting warehouse operators to serving as autonomous agents that optimize pricing and routing.
• Circular commerce is an acquisition engine; roughly half of resale shoppers are new to the lululemon brand.

[02:41] "It's a very technical problem. It's a large-scale platform problem that touches virtually every piece of a brand's business." — Ryan Rowe

[06:12] "Commerce is, is obviously just a space that we are starting to realize is a strong commercial lever… Like New for our business is really sitting at this intersection of business and impact." — Alison Buchanan

[08:40] "Resale of lululemon was happening at scale already all around us. And it was either let it happen without us… or uphold our brand standards." — Alison Buchanan

[26:26] "A lot of customers are actually trying brands for the first time with a used item… because it's a way for them to test things like fit and material and quality at a much lower barrier to entry." — Ryan Rowe

• Archive
• Like New by Lululemon

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• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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